


Amber

by fallenidol_453



Category: The Dragon Prophecy - Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory
Genre: M/M, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-19 02:39:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15500490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallenidol_453/pseuds/fallenidol_453
Summary: In the days leading up to the battle of Shieldwall Plain, Harwing crafts a gift for his lover.





	Amber

**Author's Note:**

> I can't believe a throwaway line toward the end of Crown of Vengeance convinced me to write this.
> 
> Optimal listening experience: Remember Me by Eivor
> 
> I do not own the Dragon Prophecy Trilogy. All rights go to Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory. Any mistakes to canon in here is entirely my fault.

He's never done this before. But with the bountiful power of Janglanipaikharain Flower Forest to draw upon, Harwing supposed it wouldn’t hurt to at least try.

He quickly finds out crafting anything, much less jewelry, from magic isn’t his expertise. But the result isn’t to create something astonishingly beautiful. All he attempts is a simple pendant on a leather cord, upon which a nail of silver is encased inside of a gem.

He works on it long into the nights that follow, even when exhausted from daily chores around the High King’s camp or networking with his fellow spies. He weaves spells into the leather cord and thinks of new ones to weave into the gem once he’s chosen one worthy enough to adorn his lover’s neck.

-

He ends up crafting an amber for the pendent.

Gunedwaen wore that color best when not in his armor.

-

Harwing labors over the gift for three more nights before finally deeming it finished.

The amber gem is imperfectly made; he had tried to form it evenly around the nail of silver, but the finished products always ended up too large for the cord. He finally settled for making a smaller and unobtrusive gem and funneled his concentration into weaving his new spells into it.

He spares nothing: protection, luck, speed, strength… _anything_ can happen on a battlefield, and Gunedwaen is always in the thick of the fighting with Vieliessar’s other commanders.

He doesn’t present it until they’re both in bed, long after the last person in camp has fallen asleep.

With his mind and body begging for rest, Harwing accidentally tells Gunedwaen that he only put luck and protection spells in the pendant.

Perhaps if they survived tomorrow’s battle, he’d list every single one.

He could hear Gunedwaen’s dry chuckle at the list in his mind as the last vestiges of sleep finally claimed him.

-

Harwing has fought in dozens of battles since joining Vieliessar High King’s army. But  _this one_ —!

The banespell that someone cast overpowers all his shields and sends him sprawling onto the frozen, blood-churned earth. The cold seeps through his armor and robes as his body convulses, and he can’t fight it off fast enough to regain control. He forces himself to his knees and prepares to cast another spell, but someone—not Gunedwaen, but someone from the High King’s army—heaves him over their saddle and carries him from the field at breakneck speed.

He can’t tell why. His mind doesn’t clear until he’s shoved over the protective wards of the boundary stones, and when it does he’s hastily half dragged, half carried to the healers.

He sees an ugly black-green sky and a column of baleful yellow clouds surrounding a lone figure, and thousands of mazhnune.

His last thought is hoping Gunedwaen survives the madness.

-

Gunedwaen is dead and Harwing feels like the very earth under him is shattering.

He hears every detail of his lover’s last moments in the days that follow: walking into the baleful magic column and slaying Prince Ivrulion of Caerthalien at the cost of his own life.

He should be proud. He is.

But it doesn’t bring him  _back_.

**Author's Note:**

> Optimal last line:
> 
> Harwing receives nothing to remember Gunedwaen by but the promise that he is his heir to a dead House.


End file.
